One Month of Waking Up at 4am, No Fap, No TV, No Alcohol (Ultimate 30 day challenge!)
Today is officially Day 30 of the most extreme 30 day challenge I have ever put myself though:
30 DAYS IN A ROW OF WAKING UP AT 4AM, NO MASTURBATION (NO FAP), NO ALCOHOL, AND NO TV!
Wow what a ride this has been! This will definitely be one of the most memorable months of my life!
That in itself is a great reason to push yourself to do 30 day challenges because how many months go by where you don’t really remember anything significant about them? I find that the most memorable experiences in life always come from the times that I went out of my comfort zone.
Anyone that knows me knows that I am obsessed with 30 day challenges. I am constantly pushing myself to do crazy 30 day experiments, I personally find them fun and very rewarding. Of course, they are challenging, but that’s the whole point! Every challenge always leaves me with stronger will power and an attitude that “I can do anything!”
One of the greatest discoveries i have ever made in my entire life….which I came to discovery due to the strange reason that I’ve always been an avid journal writer since I was in elementary school and have been able to look back and reflect back on my life over the years and notice patterns…is that the greatest level of happiness and fulfillment comes when pushing myself extremely hard towards a goal that is absolutely a challenge, but still just within reach that I know I can accomplish it. On the contrary I’ve always noticed throughout my journaling life that times when I was the most depressed and least fulfilled were when I really didn’t have much going on, not really pushing myself or challenging myself.
I made a detailed video this morning about my experience
Why Wake Up at 4am?
- Success Leavs Clues! Here is a list of just a few very successful people that are insanely early risers:
- Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne starts working soon after his 3:30 a.m. wakeup.
- Virgin America CEO David Cush starts working soon after he wakes up at 4:15 a.m.
- Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wakes up at 430am and is at the office by 6 a.m.
- Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey wakes up in the dark and has ran 6 miles before dawn
- NextDesk director Dan Lee starts his day at 3:30 a.m.
- FLOTUS Michelle Obama is working out by 4:30 a.m.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 3:45 a.m. and gets a head start on email
- Time is our most valuable commodity. And successful people know this and focus on ways to maximize every single minute of their day. When it comes down to becoming successful it all just boils down to one thing….getting things done! Getting the most amount done possible with the allotted time given. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Some people choose to sleep and waste their time, which is fine, hey it’s their choice! While others choose to MAXIMIZE and squeeze the life out of every second.
- Distraction Free Zone – One of my favorite parts about waking up at 4am is that NO ONE Is awake yet! The whole world is practically asleep. I run three businesses and have a social media presence that is growing by leaps and bounds and so during the day my phone is constantly blowing up with emails, texts, calls, and notifications of all sorts. So the early mornings are one of the few times where I can be alone with my own thoughts….’me time’
- Sets you up for a pyschological win! In Brian Tracy’s book “Eat that Frog” he talks about how waking up first thing in the morning and doing your most challenging task of the day first is one of the best things you can do because Will Power is like a muscle. We only have so much of it, and once it is used up then we start making poorer decisions. That is why it is best to workout early in the morning before your brain figures out what you are doing! And that is also why you are less likely to drink alcohol in the morning, and more likely to drink alcohol at night because in the morning your will power is highest and at night it’s depleting. So start your day with a bang so that you have a head start on the day!
- Waking up at 4am will force you to go to bed earlier! I promise! And if you have trouble sleeping then I can guarantee you that after a night or two of waking up at 4am with little to no sleep then by day 2 or 3 you will be falling into a sound sleep no problem!!!
Advice on How to Wake Up Early:
- The easiest way to get used to waking up earlier to change your perception and belief structure. Most people probably think of waking up at 4am as the worst possible idea in the world. They think about how much a struggle it will be. They focus on how challenging it will be. How tired they will be. Well of course then it’s going to be hard.
Imagine what it feels like going out on a Friday and Saturday night drinking alcohol, eating junk food, staying up late, and the next morning waking up feeling bloated, hung over, tired, and guilty.
Now instead, imagine staying in on a Friday night to read a book, relax, and go to bed early then to arise early the next morning to do some meditation, work on a blog, work on a project, go to yoga, etc, and entering into the weekend feeling incredible, refreshed, and ready to take on the week! When you start to change your perception about the process then it’ll get easier. Instead of looking at this as a sacrifice, look at it as a privilege!
- Before you go to bed DECIDE how you will wake up feeling in the morning! I tell myself right before I go to sleep, “tomorrow I am going to wake up feeling energized and amazing!”
Watch my video The Last Five Minutes of Your Day - Your diet and nutrition has to be on point. I learned this the hard way during this experiment. Typically I eat healthy during the week and allow for cheat meals on the weekends, but when playing around with getting little sleep and waking up earlier you will feel the difference between days where you ate healthy and/or had a cheat meal. I ate very healthy most of the month as I realized that even one cheat meal would make it that much harder to wake up in the morning.
- Go to bed early! This is pretty obvious, but if you are to wake up at 4am then you’d have to go to bed by 8pm in order to get 8 hours of sleep! I typically went to bed between 10-11pm, but I always tried to get to bed 9-10pm.
What to Expect: Pitfalls/Obstacles/How to Overcome Them
- The most challenging part of waking up early will come from the obstacles that are thrown your way, the unexpected events, weddings, parties, etc, and in my opinion the toughest obstacle will come from the peer pressure of others that don’t understand why you are doing this, they may be upset at you for wanting to go to sleep early. It’s important to understand that a lot of times in life your success will make others feel uncomfortable because it will make them notice a weakness in themselves and so to help themselves feel better they will put you down.
- The biggest demon you will battle is your own brain as you try to leave your comfort zone. Understand that the 4 phases of identity change will help you to understand and prepare yourself mentally for this fight. There are 4 phases of transformation that everyone goes through when trying to create a new habit or lifestyle:
To learn more about this watch my video Identity Change
- Inception – This is the first phase. This is where you are ‘unconsciously incompetent’. You are just ignorance on fire. This is where everything is exciting! Every job, relationship, diet, workout routine is exciting in the beginning. This is phase one.
- Deception – This is the second phase. This is when reality kicks in and you become ‘consciously incompetent’. This is when every single fiber of your existence will try to trick you into going back to your old lifestyle…your brain will try everything in it’s power to get you to go back to your comfort zone.
Some things you may experience during this phase:- Becoming very emotional
- Getting sick – cold, head aches
- Fatigue
- Transformation – This is the third phase. This is where you becoming ‘consciously competent’. You are starting to become aware that you are making progress. You start to notice that you are getting in better shape. You start to notice that it’s getting easier.
- Identity – This is the 4th and final phase. This is when you become ‘unconsciously competent’. This when it’s just who you are and you don’t have to think about it. This is why you can see rock stars on stage high on drugs and drunk on alcohol, yet still playing perfectly on the guitar, it’s because they have practiced so many tens of thousands of hours that it is just engrained in them…it’s their identity. It takes time to reach this stage; however, ultimately when creating a new habit or lifestyle this is what you are shooting for.
Why no masturbation? Why no TV? Why no alcohol?
- No TV: TV is a huge time waster. The average American spends many hours weekly in front of the TV. I don’t watch much TV as it is, but just decided to use any extra time to spend it reading and/or doing productive activities. Pretty simple answer.
- No Alcohol: I’m not a big drinker anyways, but I like to do a 30-day alcohol cleanse at least once a year to cleanse my body/soul/mind. I always lose fat without even trying, skin improves, muscles grow, and save money!
- No masturbation!!!??: Yeah, this one is actually the toughest; however, yields the most benefits. I’m speaking for men, I can’t speak for women on this subject for obvious reasons. I’ve always noticed that the longer I go without masturbation that the more energy I have. I notice the energy increase in my work outs, I notice I’m more creative, more social, and many other benefits. Energy is never lost, it’s always transferred. So when a man refrains from masturbation then that sexual energy builds up and has to be transferred somewhere. For me, I focus that transfer of energy into the gym and my businesses. It’s challenging, but if you’re a man and have never tried this then I highly recommend giving it a go and I think you’ll be amazed at what all you accomplish in 30 days!
Conclusion:
This experiment definitely tested me! However, it results in a record breaking month in all three of my businesses. I lost 10 lbs without even trying. And interestedly have discovered a level of energy that I never knew I had.
Most importantly I’m left with stronger will power and an even stronger attitude knowing that I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to!
Some inspirational quotes to leave you with:
“To Give Anything Less Than Your Best is To Sacrifice the Gift” – Steve Prefontaine
“If today were the last day of your life would you want to do what you were about to do?” – Steve Jobs
If you only had 24 hours left…how many hours of that would you waste sleeping? Would you have slept in as late as you did or would you have milked every single minute of the day?
I hope this inspires you guys to wake up just a little bit earlier! Wishing you all success and prosperity on your journey!
